Tuesday, August 22, 2006
There's a scary monster on your roof
Just a little continuation... pardon the boredom that this post of mine might bring, I'm tired and my eyes involuntarily closes...
"Aswang is more real than imaginary to most rural folks. It is a generic term for bad creatures of Filipino lower mythology ad is believed to be of different types. Classified according to the European tradition, the aswang can be 1) the blood sucking vampire, 2) the self-segmenting viscera sucker, 3) the man-eating werebeast, 4) the carrion-eating ghoul. In Philippine folk lore, the vampire appears disguised as a beautiful lady, marries an unsuspecting victim and sips his blood each night with her pointed tongue until he dies of anemia. In some cases, the vampire does not harm her spouse and flies out at night to raid other homes. the blood-sucking aswang is called amalanhig by the West Visayans, dang by the Isneg and mandurugo by the Tagalogs. The viscera sucker leaves behind its lower body from the waist down everytime its upper body flies to hunt for victims. It is known as abat in West Visayas, buruka in Ilocos, manananggal in the Tagalog provinces, and aswang na lupad in Bicol. Its favorite victims are pregnant mothers and its favorite food the human heart, liver, lungs and entrails" (-- 494).
They say that hanging garlics on your windows will drive aswangs away. They don't like garlic, as well as salt, but garlic is the most effective thing against them. I also heard that they have long tongues. Some aswangs go perch on a roof, look for a hole and then go suck on the baby inside a pregnant woman's womb who is sleeping below. Morbid, I know, but that is what I have heard...
posted by Lailomeiel at 4:46 AM | 0 comments
Monday, August 21, 2006
The First-Ever Post
Well, well, I now have another new blog (for the nth time already). I seem to sign up for a lot of blogs lately... but ended up deleting them, or abandoning them, and I realized that every time I have a new blog and write my first post I always mention this: 'I hope it stays or sticks'. Truth is, the only journals/blogs (among the countless ones...) is my first blogger account and my first livejournal which I started on June 2002, and my vox account (I am the only lailomeiel in the net btw). Maybe I kept my lj because it started on the year of my Senior year in high school... that's already four years ago since now I'm a College senior... which again makes it surreal because it's been four years already... back then I thought that I'm going to be a Marine biologist or an Archeologist (an underwater archeologist... since I have a deep attachment with the ocean. I'm a landlocked mermaid actually, or a fish without scales and gills) but then I went the sort of other way around...
Enough of the nostalgia. I just hope that this journal would stick because it's my name anyway, in African, that is.
So what is to be the purpose of this journal or blog? (I always have purposed for the other abandoned and deleted ones, dear journal, please don't think of this as a warning!) I'm going to make this my blog of collected myths, stories, and random thoughts and yes, crap. I'm only going to post not regularly since I am plagued with daily homeworks, stuff to read and the meno-and-andro-pausal parents and the sound of crickets' practice chorus outside (not unless it's the usual sound of now-unseen-personally-named-owl Rajah) I'm going to post when I have some time to spare, and yes, with my brain decent enough to make a decent post.
So first post. What's going to be my first post?
It's going to be 'ber' season in a couple of weeks. After my birthday will be Halloween time... all those orange and black decors, jack-0-lantern's and ghost stories... I used to love all those kind of stuff, considering I spent my pre-adolescent time reading R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (how I miss those, I wasn't able to complete the whole series though, how sad.) as well as Nancy Drew mysteries... I decided that my first 'decent' post will be about local myths and legends. That is, Philippine myths and legends.
I have sources though, which I will cite. However, my first hand accounts will have to follow since my yaya Allen's (I will call her 'ayah', pretend that I am Indian... blame Salman Rushdie) (I'm still trying to finish Midnight's Children so pardon the inclusion, such a good book, if I may add). So ayah Allen's interview will have to follow, and so does my Mum's stories about old San Carlos in Pangasinan...
But wait, it's supposed to be halloween... so there, I'd just talk about the dark side in Philippine mythology:
We happen to have this book:
Various authors. Filways: Philippine Almanac. (ed. Virgilio S. Almario). Manila: Filway Marketing Inc. 1991.
and it happen to have a section of Lizzie-frequently-visited about myths and creatures of legends and all that. And here I quote (the Philippine-original ones, although I believe that there is no original things left in this world... and that we all live in a world of borrowed ideas...):
"In Philippine legends, demons are like tall dark men. They live in big trees with thick round leaves like the balete or calumpang. They are large, breathe fire, and smoke cigars that do not burn out. They can take various shapes such as hornless carabaos, horses, pigs, or even a ball of fire. They can disappear at will. It is believed that a person who gets frightened when he sees a demon becomes insane" (-- 493).
And this demon is what they locally call a 'Kapre'. I've heard stories about the Kapre from my ayah. They say that they also abduct pretty girls that they have a crush on and take them to their world. Normally the girl will die in the real world, or will be lost. Our neighbour used to have a big fire tree in their backyard and my ayah used to tell me that in that tree lurks a 'Kapre'. The tree was so beautiful, it even blooms twice a year if I remember correctly... until that storm Rosing tore the poor fire tree down and in the end the poor fire tree became a foot stool, a table and firewood...
Anyway, on to the other mythic creatures: Oh wait, I forgot to mention that the article in this book also mentions dragons, mermaids, ogres and just a thought: Maybe they are all real. You know, some legends are based on facts... it's unusual to have the same thing in different countries... with different names. Maybe before they are indeed real, only Man have devised certain ways of making them not real... and with that we have to blame marketing, workaholics, and random bores... but oh well, I better shut up.
Dwarves... Philppine legends also have dwarves. "They live underground and come out at noon or after sunset. Since they are invisible, they can be hurt by unsuspecting people..." (-- 493). It's a local thing, whenever you are in a place you've never been before, especially in the provinces, the elders will always remind you to say this: 'Tabi Tabi Po'. So that the 'invicible people' will let you pass or be out of your way so as to keep the peace between you two. They say that if you don't say the phrase, and you unintenionally hit an invisible dwarf, you'll get sick or even die... or some other random bad things you can think about will happen unless they decided to forgive you.
Aww... Lizzie's tired typing for today. Anyway, till the next time... and yes, next post will still be about random myths. :D
P.S. You know sometimes, you feel that people around you really really cares or rather, it's like your family, but the next morning you feel like you woke in a boot camp.., well never you mind. It's just a thought.
posted by Lailomeiel at 5:28 AM | 0 comments
